IAPCO Innovation Award

In its 10th year, the 2022 IAPCO Innovation Award (supported by IMEX)recognises and celebrates those at the forefront of innovation, helping to raise the standards of professionalism across the meetings industry.

Finding creative solutions to overcome the frequent challenges encountered when organising an international congress is a day-to-day occurrence. The Innovation Award recognises those who use their initiative to find innovative solutions to overcome these challenges.

The Innovation Award recognises those their initiative to find innovative solutions

The winner of the 2022 Innovation Award will be announced on 24 May 2023 at The IMEX Frankfurt Gala Dinner and will be featured in the June edition of the PCO. In the meantime, we are pleased to share the nominees, each of whom deserves recognition for their innovative ideas that have made an impact.

The Nominees

AFEA has been operating in the Meetings industry for over 45 years, providing clients with integrated, full-scale services.

The 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly was held in Athens in July 2022, and it was a unique event that combined in-person and virtual elements due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The preparation of the nomination file started in 2016, and Athens was selected over other cities like Warsaw, Lausanne, and Prague. Despite the unprecedented challenges that arose during the preparation, cancellation

of the event was never an option. The AFEA team had to reform the entire event structure to ensure its programmatic and financial viability while keeping the format of 30 parallel sessions for seven full meeting days.

To make the event successful, the team came up with several innovative solutions that were applied for the first time in COSPAR's history. These innovations included full digital access to 30 parallel meeting rooms, a pyramidal form of cooperation between the PCO and local and foreign suppliers, hybrid press conferences, training of a team of more than 150 volunteers, an open panel on innovative solutions, an opening reception that showcased Greece's scientific and cultural continuity, and the screening of an emblematic Vivaldi concert at the sacred island of Delos, with the purpose to send the message and to change the way we think and act on the human-induced climate crisisthe ultimate goal of preserving the only home we have.

The COSPAR International Conference became a de facto case study on an international level, and it was a unique event that harmoniously combined science, education, and sustainability.

Kenes Group is a leading global PCO and AMC with nearly 60 years of experience in the field of medical congresses and healthcare professionals’ associations.

Unlok Education is a digital platform created by Kenes Group to provide healthcare professionals with a multidisciplinary, collaborative, time-effective, and user-friendly tool for continuing medical education. The platform is an AI-powered

video library that integrates several technologies into an easy-to-navigate, cross-specialities learning space.

The challenge that led to the development of the platform arose during the pandemic when medical congresses were removed from the spectrum of possibilities. The Kenes Group was committed to enabling a platform for medical collaboration and advancement no matter what. They created VirtuOz, an online meetings tool, and later envisioned Unlok to compile the massive library of cutting-edge, cross-specialities medical content that results from their conferences.

The outcome is Unlok, a fully customizable learning management system that uses algorithm-based matching systems and artificial intelligence to facilitate the knowledge exchange between users themselves and between users and speakers. It automatically generates captions and translations to 120 different languages, identifies highlights of keynotes in the speakers' speech, and accurately recommends similar content to create personalized CME-accredited learning programs based on users' searches.

The content from three of Kenes Original Events and the Global Education of Medicine and Science – GEMS association has already been successfully migrated to the platform, putting Kenes Group at the forefront of the continuing medical education digital world.

K.I.T. Group has been an accredited IAPCO PCO since 2002. It is based in Berlin with over 35 years of conference organisation and strategic alliance expertise.

Delphine Baudouin, Managing Director of K.I.T. Group France and her team managed to produce the first sustainable International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022, 10,000 delegates) in Paris through environmentally-friendly organisation and socially-friendly practices.

The client tasked K.I.T. Group with calculating the event's carbon footprint. With their extensive knowledge of building increasingly sustainable events, they took that challenge several steps further.

K.I.T. Group dedicated itself to helping this congress fulfil its objective most efficiently and obtain the ISO: 20121 certifications for the event. To achieve this goal, they

mission and values statement between IAF (organiser), CNES (host) and K.I.T. Group (PCO). They worked with the venue and their local suppliers to decline the five main objectives of the sustainable development strategy of the congress, including a restrictive no-single-use plastic policy and in-depth work with associations to maximise the social impact of the event.

The IAC 2022 has proven that professional conference organisers like K.I.T. Group France can achieve sustainability with effort and encourages future events to integrate more sustainability. Additionally, this sustainable congress has proven to save the organisation costs while being more friendly to the planet and presenting a favourable image of the event.

Since 1985, Kuoni Tumlare Congress has been one of the world's leading professional congress organizers offering a wide portfolio of housing and PCO services from logistics to on-site management and advanced web solutions to association management.

Interactive E-poster Builder by Kuoni Tumlare Congress

They decided to introduce digital posters in response to the growing number of posters submitted and the lack of space to present them in some congress venues. Usually, authors were requested to submit a PDF version, which was then presented on large screens during the event. They felt the need of more interactivity of posters and overcoming the limitations imposed by traditional printing. They then decided to develop a platform to create interactive E-posters.

They required a solution that offered flexibility, typically found on web pages, and leveraged the capabilities of our existing abstract management tool. They decided to offer authors a dedicated "poster builder" tool to create their own interactive online posters. In addition to text and images, these digital posters can incorporate video, animation, and audio files, and can be expanded and scrolled through with no content limitation. Authors can also set up agendas with time slots for presentations. Since its initial release, the poster builder has undergone continuous improvement and until today served more than 1000 E-posters. This innovative approach resulted in less printing, less space needed, and scientific content saved for years!

Operational since 2006, MCI Middle East has successfully built up a strong network of clients and a history of delivering successful events. They consult, manage, and create congresses, meetings, and events for a plethora of clients which include associations and institutions.

The International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) vision is a healthy world where active living is accessible to everyone. At the 9th ISPAH Congress in Abu Dhabi, the Department of Public Health aimed to hold a successful international scientific conference and promote physical activity across in the city. To achieve this, ISPAH and the Department of Health implemented various solutions, such as scientific sessions, recognition and awards, and community activities.

The scientific sessions included keynote speeches, symposia sessions, and poster and oral presentations, attracting over 4000 registrants from 62 countries. Members of the Special Olympics were recognized for their participation in the event. To engage the community, pre-event activities such as a billion-step challenge (app-based challenge) and Spirit of Football were introduced. During the congress, daily yoga and Zumba sessions, a 5 km run, and Let Move Ambassadors encouraged physical activity among attendees. The event also included a physical competition, fun activities corner, and VIP and celebrity endorsement by Michael Johnson.

Overall, the 9th ISPAH Congress successfully balanced scientific sessions with community engagement, promoting physical activity in Abu Dhabi and contributing to ISPAH's vision of a healthy, active world accessible to all.